Conventional film photography is being replaced by digital photography, wherein different types of audio-visual (A-V) material or data (i.e., audio, film, and pictures), are generated in a digital format. The digital A-V data may be stored in a computer system and/or transmitted to remote locations via communication lines. The digital A-V material generally requires very large quantities of electronic memory. If a memory unit is incorporated into a remote device, such as a handheld video camera, then the memory unit will be costly and bulky. However, due to limitations of the current generation of cellular technology, the so-called “2G” generation operating at speeds up to 9.6 kbps, the A-V material cannot realistically be wirelessly transferred in real-time to a remote storage device. Further, the digital material stored within the remote storage device cannot be incorporated with material external to the remote storage device, but rather must be first downloaded to a separate storage area. Presently, there are no procedures for automatically interleaving customized material produced by a remote user and material in previously prepared databases of various types of audio-video material.
A number of different approaches have been proposed to solve the above-described problems but they do not solve all of the problems and do not provide an integrated system. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,888,648, to Tekeucchi et al., describes a means for storing image information. U.S. Pat. No. 5,418,6554, to Scheffler, provides a method for creating a customized album, according to the actions of a human operator. U.S. Pat. No. 5,796,428, to Matsumoto et al., provides a system for classifying image data that has been stored. U.S. Pat. No. 5,937,405, to Campbell, describes a method for updating a previously stored blocks of data. Further, a variety of conventional commercial networks offer the possibility of off-line storage in return for payment. Some of these would be described at www.ememories.com, www.bigvault.com, www.mushpot.com, www.webphotos.com, //kodak58.photonet.com, www.sandisk.com, www.punchnetworks.com, and //angelfire.lycos.com. Another Web site of interest is www.mslide.com, which provides users with a music library and a means to build a slideshow.
Third generation (3G) cellular communication specifications include a proposal for the addition of a Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) which will allow users to send and receive messages using multiple types of media such as text, images, audio and video. The standardization organization for 3G cellular (3GPP) will not standardize new services, but rather will use a standardized set of service enabling features upon which new services will be provided. Technical specifications nos. TS22.140 and TS23.140 of 3GPP describe the multimedia messaging services. In addition, the standards organization 3GPP2, which is the U.S. equivalent of 3GPP, is preparing competing standards for 3G cellular based on the U.S. 3G standard called cdma2000 and is expected to create its own standards for MMS.
None of the above-described systems and methods provide for automatic or real-time downloading to a remote storage device. Nor do the conventional systems and methods provide for interleaving of user supplied material and material selected according to some criteria provided by the user or editing of the interleaved data and iteration of the interleaving process.